Urban Fantasy – Page 4 – Marked for Plot

By a Silver Thread

The Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off has brought me some real gems (Orconomics in particular I loved) and also some real duds (I did not like Murder at Spindle Manor). But I do love self-published works, and so when the slate of finalists came out, I decided to grab the titles that called my name. I won’t be reviewing all of them, though I’d already read Wolf of Withervale which I quite enjoyed, but don’t see winning because of how unabashedly queer it is. Unfortunately, I found By a Silver Thread to be a missed opportunity with interesting ideas and flawed execution.

The Premise
Lola is a changeling, supposed to have died as a child after replacing a human baby. However, a ruthless blood mage has kept her alive, turning her into a servant dependent on his medicine to keep her from dissolving into a monster. Unfortunately, he has gone missing, his home ransacked, and Lola only has enough pills for a few days. The hunt is on to find her master, and she’s willing to work with anyone to guarantee that she stays human(ish).

Read If Looking For: classic urban fantasy elements, fun magic, an interesting take on fey

Avoid if Looking For: tightly plotted stories, fleshed-out characters

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven

It’s been nice to see witches getting more love in fantasy over the last five years. Whether or not they delve into historical witchcraft or lean into fantasy cliches, they’re just a fun archetype. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven is a pretty damn good book focusing on what witchcraft in the modern age might look like. Like with a lot of modern fantasy, you’re getting some political commentary woven into the story, and this book does a good job of locking into an exciting plotline and sticking the landing.

The Premise:
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven (HMRC) is a pseudo-governmental organization in the United Kingdoms managing the affairs of witches, keeping magic secret, and generally preserving traditions as well as they can. In theory of course. In reality, any group is political, and fracture lines have been spreading over the coven’s racist biases, especially post-civil war in the witch/warlock community. But when a young boy triggers the oracles saying the grand demon himself is rising, things will get rough quickly. Only he’s not a he. He’s actually a she. In this book we follow Helena (High Priestess of HMRC), Elle (a witch trying to live away from witchcraft as much as possible), Niamh (left HMRC to use her powers as a vet) and Leonie (who formed Diaspora, a coven focused on providing a community for witches of color) as they navigate their old friendships, current dilemmas, and what it means to be a woman.

Read if Looking For: witches, critiques of TERF ideology, witchy goodness, POVs from many ideological perspectives

Avoid if Looking For: Books with subtle themes, cinematic action

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon

Speaking generally, I think comparisons to other books does a disservice to individual books. In official publishing industry pitches, this is especially egregious, where every book is _____ meets _____. While Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon absolutely stands on its own merit, it shares a lot of DNA with American Gods, and, considering that many readers are no longer interested in giving Neil Gaiman their money anymore, Shigidi is a phenomenal take on gods and modernity.

The Premise:
Shigidi is a nightmare god. Well, a retired nightmare god who escaped the Spirit Corporation grind and now works freelance to try and gain the prayers and souls needed to sustain him. He and Nnemona, his succubus partner, are offered a final job to clear their debts away and open an opportunity for a life in their homeland. But it means breaking into the London Museum through their tight security. This book drifts between years, exploring the current and past dilemmas facing Shigidi and Nnemona, culminating with their final caper.

Read if Looking For: modern interpretations of myth, three dimensional characters, bisexuals everywhere

Avoid if Looking For: tightly focused ‘heist’ books, fast pacing

Cemetery Boys

The Paranormal Romance trend of the mid 2010s may have died down, but it never quite went away. Cemetery Boys was a delightful recent addition to the genre, eschewing many of the more stickier parts of the subgenre in favor of something refreshing and heartfelt, instead of being another drop of water in the vast ocean of edgy immortal love interests.

The Premise:
Yadriel is a Brujo, or at least, he wants to be. He’s got the skills for it, but his family insists that he is in fact a she, and doesn’t belong in that part of the business. When he summons the ghost of Julian Diaz, he’s stuck with a more inconvenient companion than he could have hoped for, since Julian wants to get to the bottom of his own death. It doesn’t hurt that he’s cute, even as a ghost.

Read if Looking For: sweet romances, light mystery elements, transmasc latinx rep

Avoid if Looking For: surprising twists, action scenes, lots of magic

The Witness for the Dead

The Goblin Emperor won me over with its baroque tangle of royal ettiquette, its optimistic worldview, and a wonderful inversion of typical portrayals of monarchies. It’s sibling series is none of those things, and presents a story that feels very familiar in style, yet the polar opposite in tone. A subdued noir novella, Witness For the Dead does not require reading The Goblin Emperor to enjoy; it follows a side character far from the action and events of the previous story. In fact, there were surprisingly few easter eggs connecting the two.

The Premise:
Celehar is a Witness for the Dead, a priest with some small ability to connect with the souls of the recently deceased. He lives far from the courts of power, and mostly uses the skill to solve murders, arbitrate wills, kill ghouls, and make sure the dead are treated with respect. This book follows a nasty noble house dispute, an accusation of spousal murder, and the death of a famed opera singer. And all the while, Celehar hides his homosexuality from a world which despises him for it.

Read If Looking For: gloomy priests, representations of internalized homophobia, simple and careful prose

Avoid if Looking For: upbeat stories, highly structured mysteries

The Last Sun

Historically, Urban Fantasy hasn’t been a genre that I’ve found particularly compelling. As a kid, I was looking for more grand adventures; and as an adult, werewolves and vampires just didn’t call my name unless they were doing something interesting and creative with them. The Last Sun was a book I gave a shot while looking for queer leads in fantasy, and while it wasn’t a perfect book, it’s certainly one that I’ll be reading more of in the future.

The Premise:
Rune is the last member of a fallen house of Atlantis, which has relocated to Nantucket in the modern era. Once raised in opulence, he now finds himself working contract jobs for those with the same kind of power and influence his father used to have. He’s been hired to hunt down a missing son of Judgement, but it quickly devolves into something altogether more complicated, both for Rune on a personal level, and the island as a whole.

Read If Looking For: punchy mysteries, fun action sequences, underdog stories

Avoid if Looking For: books without graphic sexual assault, books that resolve every mystery in one book

Not Even Bones

I’m not a person who can handle gruesome depictions of core when presented with the slow, deliberate pace of a medical show or some darker parts of fantasy. When in the middle of an action scene, sure, but torture is something I struggle with. As I’ve read more horror over the years though, I’ve started to appreciate it more and more. And if you’re interested in a dark story that feels a lot like watching Dexter or You, then Market of Monsters will be right up your alley

The Premise:
Nita is the teenage child of a couple who hunts and kills supernatural creatures. Some are monsters, but others are intelligent people, basically humans with some extra bells and whistle. Nita dissects the bodies, packaging them for sale on the black market. But when her mother brings a live … specimen in, Nita lets him go. And then her mother puts Nita on the black market, to be killed for the highest bidder. Because Nita isn’t totally human either.

Read If Looking For: body horror, fun twists, urban fantasy that goes beyond werewolves and vampires

Avoid if Looking For: bespoke prose, books where characters make smart choices, healthy family dynamics

Evocation

Evocation immediately caught my eye with its cover. While I’m not a someone who subscribes to Tarot in my personal life, I greatly enjoy how it can be used as a symbolic component in stories, especially fantasy ones where its easy for me to suspend disbelief and enjoy fortune telling. That, plus a queer cast made it an easy choice for me to read.

The Premise:
David is one of a long line of Occultists, the family line said to have traded something away to a demon for power and wealth. Central to David’s life is Rhys, his ex who is currently married to a formidable witch named Moira. Overworked and seeking to take over the occult society, David begins to experience magical episodes that leave him fearful that he’s victim to something sinister, forcing him to turn to his ex for aid, and shifting the relationship of all three forever.

Read If Looking For: poly romance, dynamic narration, occultism

Avoid if Looking For: flesheshed out magic systems, mystery/thriller plotlines that satisfy

The Emperor and the Endless Palace

Reincarnation and recursive gay romance books seem to be a running theme of 2024 releases. I didn’t read all of them, but The Emperor and the Endless Palace seemed like the type of gay romance that was going to push past the cliches plaguing gay romances both in and out of fantasy spaces at the moment. And despite some classic debut-novel issues, it was exactly what I was looking for.

The Premise:
Two men, soulmates, find each other across various lifetimes. Dong Xian is a clerk at the Endless Palace 2,000 years ago, scheming for power. He Shican is something of a lost soul, an innkeeper in the woods of China in the 1700s. And River, who immigrated to America as a young child, is has recently come out and is exploring his identity in the hedonistic LA queer community. As their stories progress, so too do they intersect, replay, and unravel.

Read If Looking For: romances that aren’t quite Romances, looping narratives, lustful gay men, historical queer representation

Avoid if Looking For: saccharine queer stories, or books that aren’t romance heavy

An Academy for Liars

Dark Academia isn’t a subgenre I read a lot of. I tend to prefer my magic school stories on the kid-side of things. But when this year’s bingo card asked me to dive into a Dark Academia, I started looking for a 2024 release that would satisfy me. An Academy of Liars seemed like fun, and I had a great time with it, even if I had some issues with the book’s execution.

The Premise
Lennon’s life is in pieces when she’s invited to Drayton, a college secluded in time and space for those who have the gift to persuade people (and reality itself) to bend to her will. She just fled an engagement with a cheating fiancé, is in the midst of a sever mental health crisis, and is looking to reinvent her life. While there, she meets a hot tattooed professor who becomes her advisor, and discovers that she’s got abilities that the everyone is jealous and terrified of. Oh, and the school and all its inhabitants are all harboring dark secrets. Fun times!

Read If Looking For: Dark Academia with a romance focus, fast paced books, rats named Gregory

Avoid if Looking For: healthy relationship dynamics, quality mental health rep, books that will make you think